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First of all, if I as a tax payer have to pay for the poor to have cell phones, when I can't even pay my own cell phone bill, then yeah I'm against them having a cell phone. If they want one so badly, then they should go get a job and pay for it themselves, just like most other people who have cell phones.
Secondly, if they are homeless, who are they gonna call? Ghostbusters? If they have a family member or friend who they can call, then why isn't that person helping him/her get off the streets, and be a productive member of society? I didn't see anything in the Bill of Rights or the Constitution that said all people have the right to have a cell phone. It is a privlage, not a right. Just as healthcare, housing, and anything else that you want is a privlage, and I, as a tax payer, don't want to be forced pay for anyone to have these things when I can barely afford them myself.
If you have a phone, you already pay a monthly fee so that the deaf and hard of hearing, mute and people with speech disorders can use relay service.
Are you opposed to wasting your tax dollars on that too?
Great! That's why the democrats will be so far out of power in the next few years that the party may dissolve.
Look, if you want to start your own "Dialing for Dead-beats" fund, go right ahead. I don't want to put my money into something like this. Not when the phone company can provide a wired land-line with voice mail for far less money.
Oh, but no matter what poor people do, it must be bad. According to these twirps, they're all living the high life, getting government iPhones, using food stamps at Starbucks and to buy lobster, lazing around in front of flat screen televisions while simply choosing not too work.
In fact, the Homeless Coalition here used to offer mail-box and voice-mail services for free to the um, "homeless."
Not really. A lot of employers want to be able to talk to you on the phone and expect you to actually call back and have a consistent number where they can reach you. And if they call you and leave a message, they expect you to call them back soon after. Taking days for when you finally have a chance to drop by the Homeless Coalition to answer your voicemail from an unrecognizable number does not look good to an employer. And if you are in touch with a dozen employers at the same time, it's necessary to have your own phone on you at all times that you can pick up anytime.
Have you ever tried to get a job without a phone? (I'm talking about in today's market. 20 years ago when most people didn't have cell phones, employers didn't expect us to have them either. Now they do.) It took me a year and a half to finally get a job without a phone and I only got it cause I could literally walk over to the place and talk to the manager at any time. In fact I just spent my days in the mall anyway so that if the manager wanted to talk to me I'd just head right over to the store. But there were hundreds of other places where I could have gotten a job but didn't cause I didn't have a reliable number.
A mismatch between who picks up a call and who ends up showing up for the interview looks suspicious to an employer (that's what happens when you use a friend's phone). Using relay services looks suspicious to an employer, and most of them confuse them for telemarketing calls anyway. Also, relay isn't always reliable with getting messages through so there were numerous occasions where I never got a message that might have landed me a job. Honestly, giving poor people a phone for a job search is worth it because it helps them get jobs in the long-run, which then contributes to the economy instead of draining it. It's a good investment.
Oh, but no matter what poor people do, it must be bad. According to these twirps, they're all living the high life, getting government iPhones, using food stamps at Starbucks and to buy lobster, lazing around in front of flat screen televisions while simply choosing not too work.
Lol I know right.
If I had a phone that I could use (I couldn't because of being deaf, but it's the same point--a poor person without a phone is in the same boat as a deaf person who can't use a phone) then I would have gotten a job much sooner and not needed SSI checks for as long, maybe not even at all. Something like a phone is much cheaper than paying people welfare and SSI because they can't find a job since they don't have a phone.
When I was broke, I was not going to Starbucks and using an iPhone. Now that I have my own money I engage in those luxuries, but the phone I was offered as a blind person was nowhere near as fancy as the iPhone I choose to pay for. There's a world of difference between the 20-year-old piece of crap a poor person gets for free and the fancy phones with multiple features you can buy at the Apple store.
First of all, if I as a tax payer have to pay for the poor to have cell phones, when I can't even pay my own cell phone bill, then yeah I'm against them having a cell phone. If they want one so badly, then they should go get a job and pay for it themselves, just like most other people who have cell phones.
Secondly, if they are homeless, who are they gonna call? Ghostbusters? If they have a family member or friend who they can call, then why isn't that person helping him/her get off the streets, and be a productive member of society? I didn't see anything in the Bill of Rights or the Constitution that said all people have the right to have a cell phone. It is a privlage, not a right. Just as healthcare, housing, and anything else that you want is a privlage, and I, as a tax payer, don't want to be forced pay for anyone to have these things when I can barely afford them myself.
I was responding to the poster that suggested giving the homeless "LAND LINES". For someone that is homeless, a "wired" land line phone would not be feasible because of the simple fact that they are homeless. I was not approving or disapproving a phone of any kind for them.
There are a number of homeless in this area. (Actually, Florida is full of them) Of those that I know, one has used his cell phone to get odd jobs and make enough money so that he does not have to beg. Another simply enjoys rubbing it in your face, along with the fact that all of his medical expenses are covered 100% by the VA (even though he has never been within 1000 miles of a war zone.), and suck off the system.
I'm not against it for those that use it so that they don't burden society as much. But, the rest... Instead of giving them a cell phone, just line them up against a wall and shoot them... It would be much cheaper. Yeah, I know. We can't do that. Two wrongs do not make a "right".
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
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How did people find a job in the days before cell phones? It's called the person at home taking a message? It's really easy... "I'm sorry, Joe isn't home right now. May I take a message?" Or perhaps an answering machine. I guess we are going to have to start subsidizing the internet for folks now, because it's unfair that they don't have internet in their home. (That's expected now days right?)... and god knows they can't find a job if they don't have monster.com. This is common sense people!! You can LOOK for a job without the internet and a cell phone. A home phone line is cheaper than cell phones by a long shot. I have a basic home phone that can receive calls only and has emergency 911 for 19 a month. Just the basic cost for cell service is over 40.00 and this having been a long-standing customer.
And while I care about our homeless, let's actually get real here... if they are homeless and looking for work, don't you think in order to submit their application that they either walked there and thus could walk back in and check on their app; or they submitted their app on line in a public place like a library and most likely they'd have an e-mail address for communicating? The last job I applied for and got every bit of communication prior to the interview was done through e-mail. Having to have a cell phone is NOT a prerequisite for getting a job.
How did people find a job in the days before cell phones? It's called the person at home taking a message? It's really easy... "I'm sorry, Joe isn't home right now. May I take a message?" Or perhaps an answering machine. I guess we are going to have to start subsidizing the internet for folks now, because it's unfair that they don't have internet in their home. (That's expected now days right?)... and god knows they can't find a job if they don't have monster.com. This is common sense people!! You can LOOK for a job without the internet and a cell phone. A home phone line is cheaper than cell phones by a long shot. I have a basic home phone that can receive calls only and has emergency 911 for 19 a month. Just the basic cost for cell service is over 40.00 and this having been a long-standing customer.
And while I care about our homeless, let's actually get real here... if they are homeless and looking for work, don't you think in order to submit their application that they either walked there and thus could walk back in and check on their app; or they submitted their app on line in a public place like a library and most likely they'd have an e-mail address for communicating? The last job I applied for and got every bit of communication prior to the interview was done through e-mail. Having to have a cell phone is NOT a prerequisite for getting a job.
You can get cell plans as low as $10.00 and $15.00 a month---without long distance or the bells and whistles that most people visualize when they think cell phones. Those phones and plans are comparable to the free services for the poor. The Jitterbug (marketed mostly to seniors) has a $15.00 a month plan for 50 calls and Consumer Cellular has a plan for $10.00 a month.
Your idea of the homeless sitting around the library using the computers is laughable considering half the people on this thread would demand that librarians kick those homeless people out of the building and leave the computers for the tax payers to use.
And you can frequently find them for under $10.00; either Walgreens or CVS had them on sale for $6.99 last week, and you can also buy one for very little $$$ at 7-11.
SBC also offers 'Lifeline' service for very little money, and you can buy an answering machine from AT&T for less than $17.00 at Target or WalMart.
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